Entertainment built in

My wife has decided she wants a built in cabinet for the Big screen and some shelves for the books. I intend to build three cabinet bases with the middle one standing proud a couple inches, then add bookcase shelves on the outer two and pedestal shelves in the middle for the DVD and VCR stuff. I have included a couple renderings of the finished cabinet to give you an idea of what I am shooting for. We are still deciding on paint colors.

I use SolidWorks to do all my drawings, evaluate paint choices on the walls, and then render the plans to get an overall feel for how they will look. It has been a tremendous help, though at $2500 a seat, not something the average user can afford. I need it for work, though, so it was nice to be able to use it for me as well.

Ever thougt about using that corner next to the window space in your design. Otherwise, it seems to be wasted space. You could have shelves running at a 45 degree angle from the current rendering towards the wall with the window. This could be a display case or maybe a great storage for CD, video cassets, etc.

If you are using SolidWorks than you are probably in the engineering trades. Have you thought about how to shed heat and run cables? The components and TV that are out today put out a ton of heat. I have had to modify some built ins for a friend to accomidate this nasty but ever present problem.

Putting components on pullout/rotating shelf units is the best solution for wiring access. Just don’t buy those really expensive ones.

Steve I was planning on putting in a fan or two from old computers to draw the heat out, but I have yet to decide where I want them and how to run them.

As for the corner being wasted, well, I have always been a minimalist. I like to have symmetry and don’t want this to appear monolithic. I want the entertainment center to complement the room, not overpower it.

I too use Solidworks for many a home project. i am in the middle of my entertainment system utilizing 12VDC computer fans. Do you plan on using a variable voltage source to slow the fans to make them quieter? I am planning to pull the air from the bottom through 12×16 x 1 filters to help reduce the dust on the componets.